Title: Use WMI to get operating system information in C#

When the program starts, it executes the WMI query SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem. It loops through the results and calls subroutine GetValue for each of the many system parameters that should be available. The following code shows just a couple of the GetValue calls

// Get and display OS properties. private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { ManagementObjectSearcher os_searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher( "SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem"); foreach (ManagementObject mobj in os_searcher.Get()) { GetValue(mobj, "BootDevice"); GetValue(mobj, "BuildNumber"); GetValue(mobj, "BuildType"); GetValue(mobj, "Caption"); GetValue(mobj, "CodeSet"); ... } // Auto-size the columns. foreach (ColumnHeader col in lvwResults.Columns) { col.Width = -2; } }

The code first creates a ManagementObjectSearcher to execute the query. (To use this class, add a reference to System.Management and add a using statement for System.Management.)

Next the code loops through the returned ManagementObjects (there should be only one) and calls the GetValue method to get a bunch of values from the ManagementObject.

The following code shows the GetValue method.

// Get a value from the ManagementObject. private void GetValue(ManagementObject mobj, string property_name) { string value; try { value = mobj[property_name].ToString(); } catch (Exception ex) { value = "*** Error: " + ex.Message; } lvwResults.Items.Add(property_name).SubItems.Add(value); }

This method uses the property's name as a ManagementObject index. It converts the property into a string (if possible) and adds the name and its value to the program's ListView control.

This example fetches these properties:

• BootDevice
• BuildNumber
• BuildType
• Caption
• CodeSet
• CountryCode
• CreationClassName
• CSCreationClassName
• CSDVersion
• CSName
• CurrentTimeZone
• DataExecutionPrevention_Available
• DataExecutionPrevention_32BitApplications
• DataExecutionPrevention_Drivers
• DataExecutionPrevention_SupportPolicy
• Debug
• Description
• Distributed
• EncryptionLevel
• ForegroundApplicationBoost
• FreePhysicalMemory
• FreeSpaceInPagingFiles
• FreeVirtualMemory
• InstallDate
• LargeSystemCache
• LastBootUpTime
• LocalDateTime
• Locale
• Manufacturer
• MaxNumberOfProcesses
• MaxProcessMemorySize
• MUILanguages[]
• Name
• NumberOfLicensedUsers
• NumberOfProcesses
• NumberOfUsers
• OperatingSystemSKU
• Organization
• OSArchitecture
• OSLanguage
• OSProductSuite
• OSType
• OtherTypeDescription
• PAEEnabled
• PlusProductID
• PlusVersionNumber
• Primary
• ProductType
• QuantumLength
• QuantumType
• RegisteredUser
• SerialNumber
• ServicePackMajorVersion
• ServicePackMinorVersion
• SizeStoredInPagingFiles
• Status
• SuiteMask
• SystemDevice
• SystemDirectory
• SystemDrive
• TotalSwapSpaceSize
• TotalVirtualMemorySize
• TotalVisibleMemorySize
• Version
• WindowsDirectory

Download the example to experiment with it and to see additional details.